Israel to halt funding of West Bank outposts

November 04, 2008|By Joel Greenberg, Tribune correspondent

JERUSALEM — Responding to a surge in violence by militant Jewish settlers, the Israeli government has announced that it will halt direct and indirect state funding of unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank.

The move, decided on at a Cabinet meeting Sunday, indicated that government money still was being directed to the unauthorized outposts, some of which have roads, electricity, water and public buildings that have been paid for by the state, contrary to government policy.

There are about 100 unauthorized outposts in the West Bank, many of them makeshift extensions of established settlements. Under the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, Israel is supposed to remove at least two dozen of them immediately.

The Cabinet also approved steps to rein in violent settlers who have attacked Palestinians and clashed with soldiers in recent weeks. The measures include improved law enforcement and tougher punishment of offenders, as well as halting "all support through direct or indirect financing of illegal outposts and their infrastructures," a Cabinet statement said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the violence by the militant settlers "a threat to the rule of law" and said steps would be taken to prevent the West Bank from becoming "Israel's 'Wild West,'" according to the Cabinet statement.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Olmert, said that the government had formed a committee headed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak that was to report back in two weeks on the measures that had been taken.

An official report issued in 2005 found extensive government involvement in the funding and building of unauthorized outposts, contrary to stated policy and law.

Roads, housing and water and power hookups were provided with government financing and support, the report said. The outposts range from clusters of mobile homes with access roads and street lighting to makeshift shacks on rocky hilltops.

Danny Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council, the settlers umbrella group, called the Cabinet decision collective punishment, which he said could mean denial of basic services such as garbage collection and school buses.

"This is an intolerable violation of the basic rights of the residents of the outposts," Dayan said.